The bloodied flower in her hand was almost aesthetically pleasing, if not for the fact it was bruised, covered in saliva, and signified her upcoming peril. Hermione rather regretted her past trip to Japan on official business in the stead of the Minister of Magic, and the fact that killing Shaklebolt would only mean the death of two of the ministry's high ranked officials in the end. In the efforts of strengthening the relationship between the two ministries, she was invited to the workspace of their version of Unspeakables, Mugon. From then on, her life started the downward spiral that brought her to where she was now.
She had been coughing for months after the trip, and after hacking out a single petal during a particularly nasty fit, found that the discomfort in her throat and chest was more life threatening than she has assumed. It did not help that she was so driven by work that she was used to feeling under the weather more often than not and routinely neglected her health, nor the reality that the cause of her current distress worked at the desk right across from her. How piercing it was that while Death Eaters could not kill her during the war, a reformed one would kill her without ever meaning to.
Her affliction was a curse called Hanahaki, and it was caused by the blood from a silly little papercut when going over an Mugon's notes that invoked the curse on paper. The actualization of the curse was caused by a sardonic blonde who was due to be wed soon. It was a death that was slow coming, but coming none the less. She was rather well-known for her intelligence, so she knew when to cut her losses. Goodbyes were in order and she needed someone to look after Crookshanks once she was gone. Hermione wondered if he would miss her. She retched out more petals.